warriors04_kr.jpg Golden State Warriors' Matt Barnes dunks on Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki during the third quarter of Game Six of the NBA Western Conference Quarterfinal playoffs between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks. Photo taken: 05/03/07 Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle ** (roster cq) Ran on: 05-04-2007
Matt Barnes of the Warriors dunks on a hapless Dirk Nowitzki as Golden State broke the game open during the third quarter.
Ran on: 05-04-2007
Dirk Nowitzki, getting dunked on by Matt Barnes, looked just as bad on the offensive end for much of the series. He averaged 19.7 points on 38.3 percent shooting, including 21.1 percent on threes. For the regular season, those numbers were 24.6, 50.2 and 41.6.
Ran on: 05-04-2007

When the halftime horn sounded on Thursday's Game 6, Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki found himself sprawled out on the ground underneath the Warriors' basket and missing a shoe.

It was a fittingly ugly way to end a half that was at least that precarious throughout. The league's probable MVP played nothing like it, scoring only eight points for the night on 2-of-13 shooting as the Warriors won a 111-86 laugher at Oracle Arena.

"I really didn't give anything to my team in a deciding game, so that's disappointing," Nowitzki said. "Obviously, I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform, and in this series, I couldn't really put my stamp on it."

Coming off his best performance -- a 30-point effort that included 12 of the Mavericks' final 15 points during a fourth-quarter comeback -- of the series, Nowitzki missed his first eight shots and didn't score from the field until 38 seconds remained in the first half Thursday.

It's been a series-long drought that will add to the growing belief that Nowitzki goes from the German Giant in the regular season to the German Goat in the playoffs. Just a year after playing the lead role in Dallas' finals collapse, he was again at the heart of the problem as the Mavericks became the first No. 1 seed to lose a best-of-seven, first-round series in NBA history.

"He just struggled," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. "He struggled to get free. He struggled to get open. The five or six times he got open looks, they just didn't fall."

Coming into the decisive game, Nowitzki's field-goal percentage was down nearly eight percent in the playoffs as compared to his regular-season average, and his three-point shooting had fallen almost 11 percent. Golden State did a good job of changing its defensive looks, and when it doubled Nowitzki, the help came quick.

"It wasn't a good match up for us, and it especially wasn't a good match up for Dirk," Dallas guard Jerry Stackhouse said. "I don't think anything was missing. It was just the match up."

Such was the trend of the series when Nowitzki got the ball.

He didn't turn and face. He didn't drive to the basket. And he rarely even looked for the jumper that he hit so often in the regular season.

He simply passed the ball.

Johnson challenged Nowitzki to be more aggressive after almost every game of the series. He must have told him that Dallas went 19-1 when he scored at least 30 points this season. He must have told him that the Mavericks went 23-4 when he shot at least 10 free throws.

Still, Nowitzki made little attempt to do either, attempting just three second-half shots.

The rest of the Mavericks took the uninterested cue from their leader. The whole team looked lost in the second half as Nowitzki wandered around the perimeter and left them to fend for themselves.

"It would have helped if we had a low-post presence, and I take a lot of that on myself," Nowitzki said.

Just when it appears that Nowitzki doesn't covet the national attention that comes in the playoffs, it's all going to come his way. Only now, it will all be negative.

"It's so disappointing, you can't even describe it," Nowitzki said. "You play your heart out (all season), and it really means nothing now."

Easily forgotten are the 67-win regular season and the three winning streaks of at least 10 games. The enduring memories will be that Dallas couldn't win three in a row when it mattered and that its go-to guy didn't want the ball.

And, of course, that lasting image of a shoeless and feeble Nowitzki lying on the court.